The Third Reich at War

Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the war’s progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives. The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since. Fresh insights into the conflict’s great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitler’s suicide in the bunker.

The Coming of the Third Reich

There is no story in 20th-century history more important to understand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time.

Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich is widely recognized as one of the great iconic villains of the 20th century, an appalling figure even within the context of the Nazi leadership. Chief of the Nazi Criminal Police, the SS Security Service, and the Gestapo, ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and leading planner of the "Final Solution," Heydrich played a central role in Hitler's Germany.

The Pursuit of Power: Europe: 1815-1914

Richard J. Evans's gripping narrative ranges across a century of social and national conflicts, from the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 to the unification of both Germany and Italy, from the Russo-Turkish wars to the Balkan upheavals that brought this era of relative peace and growing prosperity to an end. The first single-volume history of the century, this comprehensive and sweeping account gives the listener a magnificently human picture of Europe in the age when it dominated the rest of the globe.

KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

In KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system.

HITLER: 1936-1945 Nemesis

As Nemesis opens, Adolf Hitler has achieved absolute power within Germany and triumphed in his first challenge to the European powers. Idolized by large segments of the population and firmly supported by the Nazi regime, Hitler is poised to subjugate Europe. Nine years later, his vaunted war machine destroyed, Allied forces sweeping across Germany, Hitler will end his life with a pistol shot to his head.

Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939

For all the literature about Adolf Hitler, there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood, to his failures as a young man in Vienna, to his experiences during the First World War, to his rise as a far-right party leader.

To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949

The European catastrophe, the long continuous period from 1914 to1949, was unprecedented in human history - an extraordinarily dramatic, often traumatic, and endlessly fascinating period of upheaval and transformation.

The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945; Citizens and Soldiers

As early as 1941, Allied victory in World War II seemed all but assured. How and why, then, did the Germans prolong the barbaric conflict for three and a half more years? In The German War, acclaimed historian Nicholas Stargardt draws on an extraordinary range of primary source materials - personal diaries, court records, and military correspondence - to answer this question. He offers an unprecedented portrait of wartime Germany, bringing the hopes and expectations of the German people to vivid life.

The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945

From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II. Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost World War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as long as it did.

In life and in his grisly family suicide, Goebbels was one of Hitler's most loyal acolytes. Though powerful in the party and in wartime Germany, Longerich's Goebbels is a man dogged by insecurities and consumed by his fierce adherence to the Nazi cause. Longerich engages and challenges the careful self-portrait that Goebbels left behind in his diaries, and, as he delves deep into the mind of Hitler's master propagandist, Longerich discovers firsthand how the Nazi message was conceived. This complete portrait of the man behind the message is sure to become a standard for historians and students of the Holocaust for years to come.

The Fall of Berlin 1945

The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Third Reich in January 1945. Frenzied by their terrible experiences with Wehrmacht and SS brutality, they wreaked havoc - tanks crushing refugee columns, mass rape, pillage, and unimaginable destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women and children froze to death or were massacred; more than seven million fled westward from the fury of the Red Army. It was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known.

Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris

Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the character of the bizarre misfit in his thirty-year ascent from a Viennese shelter for the indigent to uncontested rule over the German nation that had tried and rejected democracy in the crippling aftermath of World War I.

Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941

By the acclaimed journalist and New York Times best-selling author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this day-by-day eyewitness account of the momentous events leading up to World War II in Europe is the private, personal, utterly revealing journal of a great foreign correspondent.

Hitler: A Biography

Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. From his illegitimate birth in a small Austrian village to his fiery death in a bunker under the Reich chancellery in Berlin, Adolf Hitler left a murky trail, strewn with contradictory tales and overgrown with self-created myths. One truth prevails: the sheer scale of the evils that he unleashed on the world has made him a demonic figure without equal in the 20th century.

Adolf Hitler

Based on previously unpublished documents, diaries, notes, photographs, and dramatic interviews with Hitler's colleagues and associates, this is the definitive biography of one of the most despised yet fascinating figures of the 20th century. Painstakingly documented, it is a work that will not soon be forgotten.

The Rise of Germany, 1939-1941: The War in The West, Volume 1

For seven decades, our understanding of World War II has been shaped by a standard narrative built on conventional wisdom, propaganda, the dramatic but narrow experiences of soldiers on the ground, and an early generation of historians. For his new history, James Holland has spent over 12 years unearthing new research, recording original testimony, and visiting battlefields and archives that have never before been so accessible.

The Nuremberg Trial

Here is a gripping account of the major postwar trial of the Nazi hierarchy in World War II. The Nuremberg Trial brilliantly recreates the trial proceedings and offers a reasoned, often profound examination of the processes that created international law. From the whimpering of Kaltenbrunner and Ribbentrop on the stand to the icy coolness of Goering, each participant is vividly drawn.

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the 20th century and reveals the risks that we face in the 21st. Based on new sources from Eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think and thus all the more terrifying.

The Second World War

Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of World War II. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, The Second World War. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on World War II.

The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976

After the economic disaster of the Great Leap Forward that claimed tens of millions of lives from 1958-1962, an aging Mao Zedong launched an ambitious scheme to shore up his reputation and eliminate those he viewed as a threat to his legacy. The stated goal of the Cultural Revolution was to purge the country of bourgeois, capitalistic elements he claimed were threatening genuine communist ideology.

The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."

Army of Evil: A History of the SS

In Nazi Germany, they were called the Schutzstaffel. The world would know them as the dreaded SS—the most loyal and ruthless enforcers of the Third Reich… It began as a small squad of political thugs. Yet by the end of 1935, the SS had taken control of all police and internal security duties in Germany—ranging from local village “gendarmes” all they way up to the secret political police and the Gestapo.

Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad

On August 5, 1942, giant pillars of dust rose over the Russian steppe, marking the advance of the 6th Army, an elite German combat unit dispatched by Hitler to capture the industrial city of Stalingrad and press on to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. The Germans were supremely confident; in three years, they had not suffered a single defeat. The Luftwaffe had already bombed the city into ruins. German soldiers hoped to complete their mission and be home in time for Christmas.

Publisher's Summary

The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war. This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of The Atlantic Monthly as "the definitive English-language account... gripping and precise." It chronicles the incredible story of Germany's radical reshaping under Nazi rule. As those who were deemed unworthy to be counted among the German people were dealt with in increasingly brutal terms, Hitler's drive to prepare Germany for the war that he saw as its destiny reached its fateful hour in September 1939.

The Third Reich in Power is the fullest and most authoritative account yet written of how, in six years, Germany was brought to the edge of that terrible abyss.

As if the horrors detailed in the first volume were not enough, Mr Evans details the gradual erosion of the individual rights of all Germans and the complete indifference showed by most to that loss of freedom and especially to the loss of liberty and dignity of the persecuted minorities. An outstanding book that should be read by all.

As with the first volume, my only complaint is the flat and uninspired reading of Sean Pratt. But even that is not enough to cause this wonderful book to lose a star. As after reading the first volume, I will purchase the next as soon as I can gather the courage to listen to another, more brutal, list of horrors.

One can only wonder what those responsible for not stopping the Nazis when they had the power told themselves after the fact. Did Chamberlain ever have to deal with what he helped create? Or Baldwin? Or others in the British and French governments who could have stopped the Nazi horror in its cradle? Did those people who continually ignored Churchill's warnings ever have to face up to what they helped create?

I agree with the other reviewer regarding the reader. This book needs a second edition update - not read by Sean Pratt. If you can get past the herky-jerky narration then it's worthwhile but I'm off to my local Library for the other two volumes.

This is a thorough and well-organized history of post Weimar Republic Germany before the actual outbreak of war. My only gripe would be the narrator, who often pauses mid-sentence (not at a comma) and reminds one of a high school student. He mispronounces even some common words. To top it off, he narrates with a sarcastic tone which makes his mediocre reading ability even more annoying. BTW, you won't notice these things in your "sample listening." It will take you about an hour of listening for him to really begin getting on your nerves.

I am working my way through listening to the whole Evans' trilogy. It is good historical scholarship and a well-written narrative history of the Third Reich. As an audio-book, the narrator is generally pretty good - I have no problems listening to his narration and I have found the first two volumes (yet to listen to the third) excellent.

Evans' trilogy is a significant contribution to what is available in English. Yes, it is quite detailed and specific: obviously some readers do not require so much detail. But that is precisely why I have gotten so much from Evans' work. I've been a student of German history for decades and am always looking to learn something new. The author's knowledge of the German language allows him to delve into primary sources, not just rehash the same old stuff.

Getting through the series was difficult for me, not because of the writing style, but due to the content itself. The events and stories are told in living color. Often they are horrific and heart-breaking, and at times utterly incomprehensible and disturbing. In my opinion, Evans handles the subject matter well, neither holding back nor resorting to hyperbole.

Another difficulty with getting through the series is the narration. I was not thrilled with Sean Pratt's reading of Vol. 1, "The Coming of the Third Reich," and if anything he is even more annoying in this book. I would hope that a reader of a book about Nazi Germany would have at least a basic competence in pronouncing German names. Pratt's bizarre pacing and fingernails-on-a-chalkboard pronunciation are utterly excruciating. I live in hope that eventually a new narrator will do the series, though I doubt it as each book is so long and doubtless expensive to produce.

The first book is worth listening to, especially if you've already read Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." It gives a different view that Shirer's--more detailes in some forms, less detailed in others.

This book ("The Third Reich in Power") is terminally boring, especially in the middle two sections. Listening to hour after hour of the administrative pettiness of the Nazis may be very interesting to a sociologist, but the vast majority of history buffs can probably skip it. The fourth part, getting into the foreign policy during the 30s, finally gets interesting again.

Also, as has been said before, the reader is simply AWFUL. It sounds as if this is the first time he's seen the material, he inserts random pauses, mispronunciations, etc. Just awful.

I selected this book because of being curious how the Nazi's gained power and how such insanity took over. I was not disappointed. This is the first of a trilogy about Nazi Germany written by an English history professor. It's fairly new (2004) and examines many aspects of German politics, society, art, education, science leading up to and post World War I. I knew that the WWI defeat of Germany and the subsequent treatment, followed by the Great Depression were part of what enabled Hitler and his Nazi party to take over. However, Evans also covers general apathy, and how nobody thought this uneducated, unrefined man could take over. Also, others simply went along to avoid being beaten and tortured during the oncoming reign of terror. I immediately got the 2nd volume, and I'm sure the 3rd will follow after that. Very textured book - I kept stopping and looking up various people who were described or quoted.

1) Reading is terrible. Especially when you first start it is painful to listen to.2) Parts of the book are quite good. I actually got very renengaged in the book at the end to the point of thinking about downloading the next volume, however, the middle of the book is awful. You can zone out for hours and feel like you have missed nothing. Its just endless dribble unless you want to hear about the particular effect of the Nazi's on a host of individuals.3) find the author to be very arrogant. In the beginning of the book he talks (for over an hour) on his goals for the book. I find it amazing that he is so critical of Shirer's book, who has the advantage of actually having lived through the period. In addition, he dismisses evneets/controversies that are in almost every book on the period i have read. For instance he dismisses Hitler's relationship with his cousin as that a lot has been said and written about it but that there is no evidence they ever had a relationship, without quoting ANY evidence or reason for his opinion. He does this for several other issues as well. If you are going to be critical of others, at least give some data for why you feel that way. Then on top of that he argues that he is not here to be judgemental of the nazi regime. Hello? Every sentence is essentially a judgement. Overall a very poor experience.

In his second book of the trilogy about the Third Reich, Richard Evans describes the german state, its main features and institutions. A police state that implemented terror, murder and despised the law. The arrival of the nazism to power, so argued the author, was accompanied with massive propaganda and the abolition of individual rights. There was no valid law against the desire of state agents. The politics enemies (communists and social-democrats) and minorities (homosexuals, non-arians and jews) are purged. Nazi's project is put into practice. The german territorial expansion begins with the invasion of Austria and Czech Republic. All this are covered by the book that ends in the beginning of the second world war (invasion of Poland). A great description of a modern totalitarian experience.

The two first books on Third reich is very interesting with lots of details. A must be for any one interested in why it became very bad in 30'ties and 40'ties.
Narrator is very good, but should take a basic course in german pronounciation. Who have ever heard of Gehring oh dear it is Herman Göring, took me long time to figure out. Could be ok in US or Isles, but not on the continent

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

Phillip Lawrence

4/4/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Very thorough account"

Detailed background of how the Third Reich built and led Europe to war

Very disappointing narration, mainly put off by the accent and pronunciation of repetitive words and phrases

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Hudds Man

11/25/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great Writing, dreadful reading"

Would you consider the audio edition of The Third Reich in Power to be better than the print version?

Probably Not

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Sean Pratt?

Somebody who can actually read English. The mid-phrase pauses were very distracting and made some parts very difficult to follow. Mr Pratt seriously needs to learn how to pronounce basic English words such as quay.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Understand why it happened.

Any additional comments?

The whole series provided a great insight into the Third Reich. Generally very well written but the reading was very poor indeed.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Eva

Dusseldorf, United Kingdom

11/15/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"in power..."

What did you like most about The Third Reich in Power?

There is nothing not to like. It is great book showing point of view of regular Germans in different parts of society.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the letters and diary entries added for the feel of an era.

What about Sean Pratt’s performance did you like?

He is the best narrator for this type of book. I wish he did some of the WWI and WWII documentaries on TV as narrator. Love his voice for history book. Didn't doze off even for a minute and I listen all day long!

0 of 3 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.